The invention relates to an apparatus for dividing a piece of meat containing an elongated bone structure. Such an apparatus is for instance known from CH-A-546 539, BE-A-850 061, CH-A-609 213, NL-A-80 04364 and DE-A-28 07 766.
The known art makes use of great accelerations to which the dividing tool is subjected. Use is made for example of a knife-like tool which is moved reciprocally with force so that the dividing operation can be characterized as a hacking operation. Small bone splinters which adversely affect the quality of the meat can herein not be prevented from being broken off the bone. In the case of cutting and sawing contamination and smearing occurs. There is moreover the danger with cutting that the cutting tool becomes jammed in the cut made in the bone. In a treatment which could be designated as ramming, a great pressure is for instance exerted repeatedly which involves a tensile force being exerted on meat and bone. Reference is made in this respect to U.S. Pat. No. 2,634,457.
It is an object of the invention to embody the dividing operation such that it proceeds very steadily but nevertheless reliably, so that the drawbacks of the known art briefly described above do not occur.